Bat’s Private Post reissues postal tax stamps on rose paper
Earlier this year, Bat’s Private Post in Beverly Hills, California, issued a set of six postal tax stamps on white paper in various denominations to raise funds for Yemeni Civil War relief efforts. On October 24, those stamps were reissued on rose paper.
The reissued stamps include the following values:
10¢: Mother and child
20¢: Dar al-Jahar (museum)
50¢: Early Yemeni stamp
$1: Yemenis searching through rubble
$2: Military aircraft dropping bomb
65¢ + $1: Yemeni Arabian Nights stamp (semipostal with postal tax included in price)
The 65¢ + $1 stamp is a denomination change, with the original issue being a 63¢ + $1 stamp. In addition, the text on the new stamp is in black instead of the red used on the original. Otherwise, there are no glaringly obvious differences except for the paper color.
According to a press release issued by Bat’s Private Post, all domestic mail carried by the private local post between September 15 and December 31 must bear one or more of the postal tax stamps, with letters facing a 10¢ charge in addition to normal postage, parcels a 20¢ charge, and freightsheets a $1 charge.
Flowers adorn American Parkinson Disease Foundation envelope
I was all but certain that I blogged about this business reply envelope last month, but after receiving another copy of it in the mail this week, I can’t find a previous post about it, so…
This is an envelope distributed by the American Parkinson Disease Association in September and October 2022 fundraising mailings. The envelope features three stamp-sized images with simulated perforations, all of which depict flowers.
As I’ve mentioned before, this sort of BRE pales in comparison to the envelopes with actual labels attached to them that Boys Town distributed a while back, but it’s still colorful and worth a mention.
Queen Elizabeth II is the subject of the newest stamps from New Hampshire-based Purgatory Post. The longest-serving monarch in the history of the United Kingdom died earlier this year, and on October 12, Purgatory Post issued its memorial issue in her honor.
One of the stamps based on a portrait by Pietro Annigoni pictures a “young” queen, while the other uses an official photograph of Queen Elizabeth II taken during the later years of her life. Between the two stamps is a label picturing a rainbow that appeared over Windsor Castle shortly after the Queen’s death on September 8.
The new stamps comprise Purgatory Post’s 250th issue, a remarkable run for a modern private local post. Both stamps and the label feature black frames, traditionally used to indicate mourning.
Interestingly, Purgatory Post is not the first United States private local post to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II. Bat’s Private Post in Beverly Hills, California, issued a stamp picturing the late Queen on the same day she died.
Navigators business reply envelope goes patriotic with flags
I wrote in September about a business reply envelope from Navigators that had three preprinted stamp-sized images picturing a basket of apples. This month, the nonprofit distributed another envelope with three preprinted United States flags on it.
This is a very small BRE; if you were to write a check to send a donation to Navigators, you would have to fold the check in half to fit it into the envelope! It’s true that I’ve seen the occasional BRE that’s that short, but it’s still somewhat unusual, and particularly so with faux stamps.
Stamp album update adds pages for eight revenue categories
If you’ve been following along over the last couple of years as I’ve released pages for various United States revenue stamps in an effort to expand The Philosateleian U.S. Stamp Album, you may be interested in my latest update package: Special 2022 supplement #2.
This update adds pages for the following fiscal stamp categories:
Cigarette tubes
Potato tax
Tobacco sale tax
Boating
Trailer permit
Firearms transfer tax
Distilled spirits excise tax
Rectification tax
You can download and print the pages at your convenience.
One significant category that is still absent from The Philosateleian is beer stamps. I don’t know a good source of information about the sizes of each design in that category, and the stamps are pricey enough that tracking them all down personally isn’t an option. Do you know of a reference that provides this information?
In addition to the various fiscal stamps, this update contains pages for the Philosateleian Post stamps I’ve issued since 2004. If you happen to collect my local post stamps, you now have “official” pages on which to mount them.